We are buying a new home that has cabinet hardware in the center of the cabinet. We want to relocate the handles to the corners, but that leaves the holes in the center panels. We like the wood, but I can't really see how we could fill the holes without it being obvious on the face of every cabinet, unless we paint all of the cabinets afterwards. Any ideas?

The simplest solution would be to install a piece of molding through the center line of the doors to cover the old holes. The molding could be matched to the details of the door and either stain/painted to match or in contrast, depending upon your tastes. Something along the lines of a clover leaf or even a half round would work.

i was thinking along the same lines as queen and spruce. the first thing that popped into my head was to cover the center panel with a piece of veneer stained to match the doors. the nice thing is you can use the scrap pieces to test to gt the color right. another plus is that they make veneer with a 3M product on the back which is a peel and stick variety. i just did a whole living room with it to match some existing wainscoting from some water damage. came out great.

Replacing the doors will be the simplest and easiest approach, but I like MLB's veneering idea and it will probably cost less. I cannot imagine what someone was thinking when they centered the handles like that, UGH!

The cabinets in the picture appear to have a rather high molding. I am wondering if "door skins" could not be ripped to neatly fit in the center of the molding? For what ever reason, door skins often cost less than the equivalent area of veneer. They are very sturdy also. Don't know if that additional fraction of an inch of thickness would look OK or not.

Something similar might be done using a contrasting laminate to cover the inset between the moldings. Laminate would be thin enough not to look odd due to their thickness. There are hundreds of patterns and colors. One of them certainly would look interesting in the inset. I kind of envision a nice warm cream color there.

Of course, all these suggestions presuppose some amount of basic woodworking skill and few basic tools such as a table saw.

Frankly, if I could afford it, I would opt for new doors. The existing style is somewhat dated looking.

Some suggestions: replace the center panels and paint a contrasting color. Put frosted glass in some of them. Or cover the panels with grass cloth.

Or replace the doors and drawer fronts.

This was the only thing I could really think of.
The middle is removable/reversible. The flipside is way more modern, but still has the holes.

I thought that it might be nice to put glass in both sides of the cabinets over the peninsula to let more light in from the other side and kind of bring the spaces together. They have doors on both sides, so I should just be able to put glass in where the centers are now.

I'd still have to paint the bottom cabinets and others. Do you think I would need to prime if I use Valspar paint+prime?

The cabinets in the picture appear to have a rather high molding. I am wondering if "door skins" could not be ripped to neatly fit in the center of the molding? For what ever reason, door skins often cost less than the equivalent area of veneer. They are very sturdy also. Don't know if that additional fraction of an inch of thickness would look OK or not.

Something similar might be done using a contrasting laminate to cover the inset between the moldings. Laminate would be thin enough not to look odd due to their thickness. There are hundreds of patterns and colors. One of them certainly would look interesting in the inset. I kind of envision a nice warm cream color there.

Of course, all these suggestions presuppose some amount of basic woodworking skill and few basic tools such as a table saw.

Frankly, if I could afford it, I would opt for new doors. The existing style is somewhat dated looking.

I agree it is very dated. I would love to get new doors, but there are 55 of them and I need a more affordable option due to lots of other updates. I haven't heard of door skins. Where have you found those? Thanks.

i was thinking along the same lines as queen and spruce. the first thing that popped into my head was to cover the center panel with a piece of veneer stained to match the doors. the nice thing is you can use the scrap pieces to test to gt the color right. another plus is that they make veneer with a 3M product on the back which is a peel and stick variety. i just did a whole living room with it to match some existing wainscoting from some water damage. came out great.

Did you get the 3M veneer from a box store or was it something you had to special order?

Door skins are made to repair doors. They are very thin plywood, about 1/8 inch, with a good veneer surface. They are slightly larger than 36 inch by slight longer than a typical 6 foot 8 inch door. Any good lumberyard that does a pro trade will either have them or can order them for you. They are relatively easy to work with, far more so than working with veneer, and for what ever reason are cheaper than the same area of veneer.

Years ago I refaced all the ugly, dark luan mahogany doors in my house with oak door skins. I got it down to about an hour per door using contact cement and using a laminate trimmer to trim the edges and plunge route the passage lock hole. I veneered the jambs and replaced all the casings and stops with solid oak. When done, it was just about impossible to tell that they were not original. OK, I am a nut, but it was easier than replacing all the wallpapers in the house that abutted the doors.

Anyway, given the manner in which your panels are fastened in, it would be a piece of cake to replace with a similar piece of virgin oak plywood or doorskins.

Another thought, since the panels are easily removeable, is to cover them with a commercial quality vinyl wall covering. You would only need to clean and scuff sand the panel, apply a pre-wallpapering bonding agent and hang the wallcovering directly on the old panels with a heavy, pre-mixed "clay paste", available at any good paint store.
Such commercial grade wallcoverings usually come in 54 inch widths and in hundreds of patterns and faux finishes, such as leatherette etc. This route would probably cost under $200 in materials and require almost no special tools, just a wide blade spackle knife for smoothing and some single edge razor blades. Roll the paste on with a small trim roller.